Dave Sanford AKA RC has passed away. I never knew him, but I was a member of the Royals Corner site for several years.
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=281&f...t=12566102&p=1

That's terrible. He always seemed like a good guy and a really passionate fan.

But to be clear--there was no punishment for breaking this rule. MLB had no penalties in place until 2005. People should read into that what they wish.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Personally, I would consider voting for anyone who was using prior to 2005 but I would not vote for anyone caught using PEDs after that time.

I also would never vote for Bud Selig.

One thing I'll never understand, the whole 1st ballot hall of famer thing and a guy who could take years to get in like Biggio. so are the voters creating different "tiers" of hall of famers?

IMO, your either a Hall of Famer or you are not. It shouldn't take some guys years and years to get in.
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Some of the HOF voters are self-righteous dickbags with no motive other than to have a look-at-me moment when casting some truly asinine ballots.

Most of them can go **** themselves immediately. Not quite the farce that is the NFL Pro Bowl, but it's getting close.

watched the Royals quite abit in 2013 .. team looked good .. hope they play as good or better this year .. GO ROYALS .....

That's terrible, he made a big impact on many people in the Royals community. He will be missed dearly, RIP.

Look, I realize that if insufferable pricks werent allowed in the HOF - the HOF would have a lot less residents.

But fu** bonds....and fu** Clemens. They got caught....they lied out their ass.

And fu** bonds for being the most miserable multi-millionaire that plays a game most american males would give their left nut to play, but yet he somehow found a way to be an ass to media and treat the game like it was some heavy cross to bear.

F*** him. I say karma.

the guy who died used bit strips on his facebook.

http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/new...nt_id=66432516

If being an asshole was such a crime to keep you out of the baseball HOF, George Brett wouldn't be there either. A whole lot of great players wouldn't be.

I enjoyed the recent Jack Morris only ballot.

Thats pretty much where I am. At some point in the 2000's, a line was drawn. Before that line, no one really cared. After that line, PED's were verboten.

I would not support anyone knowingly taking PED's after penalties were implemented and they were tested for. Before that time, baseball basically encouraged these guys to do it, so I don't understand why they should be punished.

Their accomplishments are what they are, they still would have been the best players of their era without PED's, so excluding the best players from that era is stupid.

This makes sense.

MLB NEWS
Hayes and Royals agree to 1-year contract
January 10
The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Catcher Brett Hayes has agreed to a one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, avoiding salary arbitration.

The 29-year-old hit .278 with three doubles and a home run in five games for the Royals last year and made $600,000. He batted .233 with 17 homers and 44 RBIs in 78 games for Triple-A Omaha.

Kansas City claimed Hayes off waivers from the Miami Marlins in November 2012.

Printing them as I type..........

To the watchtower.

To the Omaha!

LMAO

I just put together something that I've been working on for many hours. I don't know why I did it and its a little nuts, but here you go.

This is a 2014 MLB season simulator, run entirely in excel. You must have excel to use this.

Looks good. It worked on my excel.

So the only thing I should edit is the W-L record bracket on the 2nd tab?

Will have to check this out when I get home

If games have been played then yes, edit the records and the "games played through" date. All the stuff you need to edit is highlighted in red. Also edit the weights, the weights are very, very important. Feel free to change my default weights, I probably won't even like them when I look at them again tomorrow morning.

After that, you just need to highlight an empty cell (be careful, some cells look empty but have a formula in them) and hit delete to force the workbook to recalculate another season.

Any chance Santana signs with the Royals?

Oh FFS. We are talking about cheaters, not winners

I made a small update to the simulator to account for some uncommon wild card scenarios (eg a crappy division winner stealing a wild card spot away from the 5th-best team in the league)

Looks like Guthrie's contract has been restructured

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/0...-contract.html

$8M 2014
$9M 2015
$10M mutual option for 2016 with a $3.2M buyout

Hmmmm ... frees up some money for this year.

Very interesting.

$$$ to try and bring back Santana on a 1 yr deal?

Question is:

Is that money to keep things at the current payroll projection and pay for arbitration awards?

Or is it to add a few pieces here and there?

$3 million might be enough to nab a back-end starter/reclamation type on a one-year deal.

I'm ignoring the mutual option since it is very unlikely to be exercised.

We're basically paying $200k for the right to delay $3MM of salary for 2 years. That is an annual interest rate of roughly 3.3%, which is probably fair.

Oh, and of course this also means that the Royals are probably trying to add one more player. I thought they were probably done, but maybe not.

There is literally no reason for Guthrie to do this unless the Royals told him they need this payroll flexibility to win this year.

edit: apparently this happened in November and was not reported until now. So, it means nothing as far as whether or not the Royals are done.

ROYALS
Guthrie, Royals restructure contract
January 13
BY BLAIR KERKHOFF
The Kansas City Star

The Royals have restructured the contract of pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, freeing up some payroll space for 2014.

Guthrie was originally scheduled to earn $11 million this season and $9 million in 2015 under the terms of his original three-year deal.

Instead, he’ll earn $8 million this season and $9 million in 2015, with a $10 million mutual option added for 2016.

The option has a $3.2 million buyout, which means the value of the contract is about the same, with Guthrie getting an additional $200,000.

But the Royals have cleared $3 million from their 2014 payroll.

The news was first reported by Joel Sherman of the New York Post, but the deal was restructured in November.

“We were able to restructure the contract and gain more flexibility heading into the offseason,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said.

The Royals have been busy in the offseason, signing second baseman Omar Infante for four years with a club option for a fifth for $30 million, and pitcher Jason Vargas for four years at $32 million.

The restructuring brings the Royals’ payroll to about $87 million, which is about the same as last season when they delivered their best record in a quarter century at 86-76, and what Moore has said he expects it to be this season.

The Royals have seven arbitration-eligible players: first baseman Eric Hosmer, infielder/outfielder Emilio Bonifacio, outfielder Justin Maxwell and pitchers Greg Holland, Luke Hochevar, Aaron Crow and Tim Collins.

Those seven can file for arbitration on Tuesday, and the Royals and any player would exchange salary proposals by Friday. Hearings are scheduled in February, but the player can sign before — or even during — the hearings.

Guthrie, who will turn 35 in April, was acquired from the Rockies in 2012. He was 15-12 with a 4.04 ERA and led the Royals in victorieslast season. He’s 20-15 with a 3.78 ERA in 47 starts in Kansas City.

So where's all the new tv money?

Glass shoved it up his ass for safe keeping.

It's hanging out with the money Meche gave back.

Well, first you have to start with the very safe assumption that its not going to be a flat 20MM per year. These big sports mega contracts are always designed to start below average and finish above average. So, probably call it 15MM. Then, from another story (I think it was about the Pirates? Don't remember) we did find out that in 2014 MLB plans to withhold a big chunk of money from each team, about 4MM, for the central fund.

As of right now, payroll went up by about 9MM. I'm not sure where the other roughly 2MM is, but most of the new TV money is on the field.

We're not getting much more new money until our terrible local TV deal expires in 2019.

Our attendance last year was dreadful so the owner probably doesn't feel like spending more this year. He's made a ton off this franchise but I doubt he made much last year. Our fans need to show up this year

Don't blame it on the fans, the ones who've had to endure shit baseball for almost 3 decades. David Glass has plenty of money to spend on the team, with or without sell-out crowds at the games. The last thing I am pointing a finger at is the fans. Stop using that as an excuse for our cheap-ass owner, it's obvious he doesn't care about anything other than the money in his pockets.

There's no doubt that we would all love to see The K packed every night, but can you really blame the fans? When the Royals win consistently year-in and year-out and the fans aren't showing up then blame them all you want, hell i'll join you, but 2 winning seasons in 20 years isn't going to make the casual fan and family rush out to the ballpark very often and I am not going to blame them for that.

Winning fixes all.

I've broken down all the known and likely revenue and expenses before and I can do it again, but I really don't think Glass has made money the last few years, aside from the increased value of the franchise which he can only cash in on someday by selling the team.

I think glASSmakes money every year, just not a tremendous amount.

I don't think he has either. I guess we'd have to rely on Forbes for that information. I'd guesstimate he's maybe broken even at best recently and won't make much if anything this year. This doesn't make him a good owner obv nor does it mean he didn't make much off the Royals which he did. Just that recently he has not.

Thats certainly possible. I think I was able to dial it down to just a few million left over, and at that point I just waved my hands and basically said "I'm sure I'm not accounting for more expenses somewhere", and called it even.

In other baseball news, the number of MLB teams without a mascot went from 4 down to 3. (Yankees, Angels, Dodgers)

The Chicago Cubs are going to have a Cub named Clark as a mascot next season

I wish the Royals didn't have a mascot. Slugger annoys me greatly.....

I'm fine with the mascot. The mascot is not for me, its for the kids, to convince them to make the horrible mistake of becoming lifelong Royals fans and secure future revenue.

To me, all the old guys griping about mascots ranks right up there with griping about putting names on the back of uniforms. There's nothing pure or noble about having no mascots and no letters on the jersey.

What kind of interest is Santana getting ?

None of the big FA starters - Garza, Santana, Jimenez - are getting much attention right now.

Probably won't hear much on them until Tanaka is settled\signed.

Qualifying offers for the last two are the issue. Garza's health issues are probably his biggest negative right now.

Don't tell me you guys wouldn't take Garza or Jimenez for little money if they are NOT well-desired in the FA market.

Guthrie's deal to sign Santana?

Little money? Define that.

Garza is worth exploring regardless. His health issues are a concern, but he'd be a nice vet to have around if/when Shields leaves after this season. It comes down to years and dollars. Really no idea what his market is right now.

With Jimenez, again, what's the market? What are the years and dollars? Remember that with him, you also surrender a draft pick and that slot amount.

It's likely going to require A LOT more (in both years and $) to re-sign Santana.

Who needs Santana?

We reportedly just signed Brad Penny to a minor league deal.

Championship!

Minor league deal? Fine. Take a flyer, you never know.

I can't believe Penny is 35 years old.

http://www.gammonsdaily.com/peter-ga...gent-pitchers/

James Shields has made it clear to the Royals that he’s thinking about a Zack Greinke deal.


From that article.

Lotta miles on that arm already. I wouldn't be too keen to be the team paying the next contract

I know some people may jump to call bullshit here...but I once was partying with Brad Penny when he was living with a high school friend (Andy LaRoche), and saw him get jump-punched by a female outside of a night club in LA. Those were the days.

The dream dies.

That's why you have have to develop pitchers. You just have to. Even the Tigers couldn't keep their rotation together.

I'd invest in Santana instead of Shields

Royals have to get in the playoffs this season ...I figured it'd be hard to retain him

Our Time?

Historically, Shields would be the safer bet, but if Santana's cost comes down enough in the next month (I doubt it will drop that far), we should make the move.

Honestly, I'd invest in neither and make a real run at Tanaka if I'm going to give a huge deal to a pitcher I want to try to slot at the front of my rotation.

I think Tanaka is actually less risky than Santana, even though he has never pitched in the major leagues.

I'm not sure about the "risky" part but I do believe Tanaka has the much higher potential for the next years then Santana... I'd say the risk is the same for both of them though.

Tanaka's risk is that he translates as a no 3 or 4 rather than a no 2.

Santana has the inconsistent performance risk AND is older and slider -dependent. I'd rate his injury risk much higher over the course of that deal.

You can't really say Tanaka is going to translate to anything yet because he's never pitched a inning in the MLB... American baseball is on a whole other level than oversees.

The Japanese league has proven it is about on par with AAA, maybe even slightly better in some aspects. So you can project with some comfort level.

Its a risk, for sure, but I just think there's a little less risk with Tanaka. All things equal, I'd prefer him. Younger, more upside, less injury concern, more consistent.

But there's also the fact Santana probably gets 1/2 of what Tanaka does by the time the posting fee is included...

If someone out there is really willing to pay 25 AAV over 6 years for Shields, then do the QO, and get the draft pick.

Won't happen on the AAV IMO. But Fans should probably be prepared that Shields won't be here after this year. I'm ready for it, Duffy needs to bring his A game (he will). And I'm excited for Ventura

If the Royals signed Tanaka I'd probably die from shock.

So would David Glass.

Oh, they won't. But they're not going to sign Santana either. All talking in hypotheticals there.

If you're signing one of them to a big, long-term contract, I think Tanaka is the better bet, is all.

Just met Mr. Penny. Seems like a nice guy. Hes in town

You didn't jump-punch him did you?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Penny, whose deal was first reported by <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisCotillo">@ChrisCotillo</a>, has been working out in Lenexa since last September</p>&mdash; Pete Grathoff (@pgrathoff) <a href="https://twitter.com/pgrathoff/statuses/423664248401563648">January 16, 2014</a></blockquote>
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